[Illustration: GENERAL DUBAIL
Commanding the French Forces Operating Around Verdun.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
At the same place, M. Jules Griffaut, 66 years of age, was herding his
cows peacefully in a field, when a detachment of the enemy passed 150
meters from him. A soldier who was alone in the rear of the column
took aim at him, and shot him in the face. It is proper to add that a
German officer took the trouble to have the wounded man attended to by
a German army doctor, and that Griffaut recovered fairly soon.
At Rebais, on the 4th of September, at 11 in the evening, the Germans,
after pillaging the jeweler's shop of M. Pantereau and loading the
goods which they had taken on to a cart, set fire to the house. They
also burned three private houses in the Rue de l'Etang by throwing
lighted straw into them.
In this little town serious acts of violence were committed. M.
Auguste Griffaut, 79 years of age, was treated with horrible
brutality. They repeatedly struck him on the head with their fists. A
revolver shot grazed his head. His watch and his purse, containing 800
francs, were stolen from his person.
On the same day, some German soldiers grossly ill-treated Mme. X., a
wine-shop keeper, aged 29, on the pretense that she was hiding English
soldiers. They undressed her and kept her in the middle of them
completely naked for one and a half hours; then they tied her to her
counter, giving her to understand that they were going to shoot her.
They were, however, called out just then, and went away, leaving their
victim in charge of an Alsatian soldier, who untied her and restored
her to liberty.
Again, on the 4th of September, other soldiers attempted to rape Mme.
Z., 34 years of age, after having sacked her grocery shop. Angered by
her resistance, they tried to hang her, but she cut the rope with a
knife which was open in her pocket. She was then beaten mercilessly
until the arrival of an officer, who was fetched by a witness of the
scene.
At St. Denis-les-Rebais, on the 7th of September, a Uhlan obliged Mme.
X. to undress, threatening her with his rifle; then he threw her on a
mattress and raped her while her mother-in-law, powerless to
intervene, endeavored to keep her grandson, 8 years old, from this
revolting sight.
On the same day, at the hamlet of Marais, in the Commune of
Jouv-sur-Morin, the three daughters of Mme. X., aged respectively 18,
15, and 13, were with their sick mother when two German soldiers
entered, seized the eldest, dragged her into the next room and raped
her in succession; while one committed his crime, the other watched
the door and with his weapons kept back the half-maddened mother.
Frightful scenes occurred at the Château de ---- in the neighborhood
of La Ferté-Gaucher. There lived there an old gentleman, M. X., with
his servant, Mlle. Y., 54 years old. On Sept. 5 several Germans, among
whom was a non-commissioned officer, were in occupation of this
property. After they had been supplied with food, the non-commissioned
officer proposed to a refugee, a Mme. Z., that she should sleep with
him; she refused. M. X., to save her from the designs of which she was
the object, sent her to his farm, which was in the neighborhood. The
German ran there to fetch her, dragged her back to the château and led
her to the attic; then, having completely undressed her, he tried to
violate her. At this moment M. X., wishing to protect her, fired
revolver shots on the staircase and was immediately shot.
The non-commissioned officer then made Mme. X. come out of the attic,
obliged her to step over the corpse of the old man, and led her to a
closet, where he again made two unsuccessful attempts upon her.
Leaving her at last, he threw himself upon Mlle. Y., having first
handed Mme. Z. over to two soldiers, who, after having violated her,
one once and the other twice, in the dead man's room, made her pass
the night in a barn near them, where one of them twice more had sexual
connection with her.
As for Mlle. Y., she was obliged, by threats of being shot, to strip
herself completely naked and lie on a mattress with the
non-commissioned officer, who kept her there until morning.
We have also taken note of the fact that, as appears from declarations
made by a municipal councilor of Rebais, two English cavalrymen who
were surprised and wounded in this commune were finished off with
gunshots by the Germans when they were dismounted and when one of them
had thrown up his hands, showing thus that he was unarmed.